Which version of Civ IV do you prefer?

[JayneStarlancer]

I only recently started playing Civilization IV a year ago, and it is the first Civilization game I have ever played. I bought the complete edition of the game and started playing Beyond the Sword right away. After the first couple games, I was somewhat disappointed, and I stopped playing.

However, it was only a week or so later that I decided to give the game another try, but I decided to play only vanilla Civilization (no expansions) instead. I found that I really, really liked Civilization IV without any expansions. I think this is because I prefer what I believe is the simpler, streamlined gameplay of the vanilla version.

Perhaps, after I have played the vanilla version for hours on end, I will eventually move into playing Beyond the Sword regularly. However, I am curious to hear what other players' experiences have been, especially how you think that relates to your previous experience playing Civilization games.

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

BtS all the way, yessir. If I had lots of time to play I might mess around and find a mod I really liked, but I don't- so I just play BUG.

 

[Axios]

Bts + Better Ai 1.02 + BUG 4.5 + Cultural City Styles

 

[strijder20]

Bts + Better Ai 1.02 + BUG 4.5 + Cultural City Styles

He is saying that he is playing a mod which improves the AI, makes some information a lot easier to see and gives unique Ethnical graphics (Such as renaissance Greco-Roman buildings, Middle eastern buildings, etc.)

 

[GGracchus]

I play BAT, which has BUG and a couple of fixes in addition to some sweet art, so essentially BTS. Too many changes annoy me.

 

[s.bernbaum]

I played vanilla for a long time and enjoyed it. I still would prefer the religion and espionage systems used in vanilla. I like the tech tree so much better in BTS that it would be a tough choice. However, BUG Mod makes me choose BTS without a doubt. The UI with BUG installed is so much improved that I can't go back to any version without it!

 

[strijder20]

I played vanilla for a long time and enjoyed it. I still would prefer the religion and espionage systems used in vanilla. I like the tech tree so much better in BTS that it would be a tough choice. However, BUG Mod makes me choose BTS without a doubt. The UI with BUG installed is so much improved that I can't go back to any version without it!

I've never used BUG before. What does it actually do?

 

[Windsor]

I had lots of fun with vanilla Civ, but after a while it becomes nice to get some additional leaders and the balance issues with vanilla also matters more. Forum discussion almost always assumes BTS 3.19 so that's also something BTS has going for it.

 

[s.bernbaum]

BUG:

Keeps track of cities and posts notices on screen: one turn before growth, unhappiness, unhealthiness, whenever you finish a build and start the next one in a queue, if a city revolts, probably more but that gives you an idea of the city stuff

notifies you whenever a great person is born in any empire that you have met

improves the foreign advisor screen: shows you the points and attitudes towards you and each other of all AIs

adds an excellent city dot mapping tool

improves espionage screen so you can see the EPs AIs are putting against you and each other per turn; allows you to swap the city and mission sections of the screen so you can pick a mission and see the cost in each of the target AI's cities

Allows you to massively customize the domestic advisor screen

If you are in slavery or universal sufferage lets you know whenever you can finish something by whipping or spending gold, including how many pop or how much gold and how much overflow

You can set it to show the number of cities each civ has, their military ratio to you, their EP ratio to you, and their attitude towards you in the listing in the lower right corner of the main screen.

Many more features, too numerous to enumerate. If you are playing BTS, give it a try.

 

[God-Emperor]

s.bernbaum: You even left out one of the most easily noticeable changes, and one of the msot frequently useful. The updated scoreboard.

It shows additional information, like once you have enough espionage points to see their demographics you get to see a power ratio indicator (.5 = they are twice as strong as you, 1.5 = you are 50% stronger than them, based on the games "power rating"), there is a marker that is shown if you are their worst enemy and one that is shown if they are in WHEOOHRN mode (or actually in a war), it shows the number of cities you and they have (or that you know about), the change in score since the last turn, and probably some other stuff. Also, it is customizable (you can pick which pieces of info to show and you can also change what it uses for the player name - their name, their civ's name in long or short form, both name and civ).

BUG is also customizable in general. You can choose which additional information it will give.

A couple more things it has:

Near the research bar it shows a bar for progress on the next great general and the next great person (showing the info for the city that is closest to making one, or the current city if you have one selected but are not showing the full city screen).

Automatic unit naming. It can give your units names based on schemes that you can set either globally, for each unitcombat type, or for each combination of unitclass and era (the advanced option). If you see a screenshot with a unit that shows a name like "Warrior 4 (Rome)(Warrior)" then this is from the automatic unit naming which is probably using the default of unit type + number of units of that type that have been made + (city where it was made), to which the game appends a (unit type) string (redundant in this case, until the unit is upgraded anyway). There are many options for this.

Many of these things were/are available as separate mods or mod components, like the notices that were mentioned are at least mostly originally from "Civ4lerts" and "More Civ4lerts". BUG brings a bunch of them together, plus provides a bunch of utilities for modding and changes the way "events" and "callbacks" are dealt with (which will mean nothing to anybody who doesn't mod the game themselves).

It makes information so much easier to find that after you use it for a while playing without it (either regular BtS or some mod that does not use it) becomes awkward.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Been using BUG so long, I often forget which things were from unmodded BTS and which ones are added by BUG!

 

[God-Emperor]

I didn't have that problem until I merged BUG into Final Frontier Plus (which I play quite a but, not surprisingly). Now that that has it too and I am therefore getting more used to having it, I find it increasingly irritating to play without it.

 

[Utenlok]

I have never been able to find a use for the unit naming. Seems there may be one somewhere, so I am open to ideas. I currently play with it turned off as it is just extra clutter in the default state.

 

[SamSniped]

No one likes Warlords

 

[God-Emperor]

It also looks like the OP is the only one who voted for vanilla.

I finally voted and went with Mod with significant gameplay changes, since I play some of those. It also depends on what you consider significant - Better Bug AI is my most played mod (other than Final Frontier Plus) and the only significant gameplay change is the better AI.

 

[JayneStarlancer]

I assumed that the consensus would be for BtS with only myself playing vanilla exclusively. However, I am enjoying reading your opinions and experiences.

By "Mod with extensive gameplay changes" I meant something that added more techs, units, civics, civilizations, leaders, or even game features (like the stuff in RevDMC). I don't consider BUG and Better AI mods "extensive gameplay changes" since they don't add new content; they only improve what already is present in the game.

Some specific reasons why I prefer vanilla Civ IV:

1. Fewer units means less time spent building and upgrading military.
2. I don't like the Apostolic Palace (already have the UN).
3. I prefer to have Spies later than earlier.
4. Corporations are just another thing to have to worry about.
5. Haven't played through the original civilizations yet, don't need additional ones.
6. Great Generals either add little (as specialists) or require micro-management (if attached to units).

I feel that vanilla has a very good flow to the gameplay... as religion becomes less important later in the game, things like Spies and the UN take its place by giving you more things to think about. By adding the Apostolic Palace, Corporations, and early Spies, it feels like there are constantly a dozen little things to consider, and each era of the game feels less distinct.

 

[jtb1127]

Beyond the Sword is definitely the best version, though mods (including those for BTS) consume a great deal of my civ playing time.

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Been using BUG so long, I often forget which things were from unmodded BTS and which ones are added by BUG!

Wait 'til you buy a new computer and install BtS... and forget to install BUG!!!

I recoiled in horror, I shrieked in fear- why is my scoreboard such a mess?!? WHERE IS MY GREAT PERSON BAR?!?!? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT CUZCO WAS ABOUT TO BECOME UNHAPPY?!?!?!?!?

Breathed a sigh of relief as I remembered that, for some odd reason, (even at this late date), when you patch to 3.19 it doesn't just automatically load BUG for you.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Wait 'til you buy a new computer and install BtS... and forget to install BUG!!!

I recoiled in horror, I shrieked in fear- why is my scoreboard such a mess?!? WHERE IS MY GREAT PERSON BAR?!?!? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT CUZCO WAS ABOUT TO BECOME UNHAPPY?!?!?!?!?

Breathed a sigh of relief as I remembered that, for some odd reason, (even at this late date), when you patch to 3.19 it doesn't just automatically load BUG for you.

I did just buy a new computer, about a month ago, with an upgraded OS. However, I use a Mac and Mac OSX lets you migrate your entire setup from one computer to another, even if you upgrade the OS. It just flags applications that won't run on the new OS. So, my CIV and BTS setups did not need to be reinstalled. However, I sympathize with your plight!

 

[The7Sins]

BTS + BUG + Better AI + Civ Gold + The very extensive Mod my dad made + a Great Wall Mod all merged together = what I play.